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Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor and former stand-up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Zapp Brannigan's beleaguered assistant Kif Kroker, melodramatic soap acting robot Calculon and other characters; The Brain in Animaniacs and Pinky And The Brain, and Egon Spengler on The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. Voiceover acting LaMarche's first entrance into the voiceover industry was in 1980 in Easter Fever and Take Me Up to the Ball Game, two Canadian films from Nelvana.[11] LaMarche did not venture into voiceover acting again until years later as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career. Television LaMarche began on Inspector Gadget and went on to Dennis the Menace, Popeye and Son and The Real Ghostbusters. After The Real Ghostbusters, LaMarche became a regular mainstay of the voiceover industry appearing in such shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, GI Joe, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, Taz-Mania, Where's Waldo, The Little Mermaid, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers before landing perhaps his most recognized role in 1993 as The Brain on Animaniacs (and later its spin-off show Pinky and the Brain). Following this, LaMarche worked on The Critic, Freakazoid!, and The Tick before then reprising his role of Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters. The stretch of two years after this saw LaMarche portray characters in such shows as Hey Arnold! as Big Bob Pataki, Queer Duck, The Chimp Channel, and Sonic Underground as Sleet. During this time Maurice would become the voice actor for Mortimer Mouse who he would voice in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and Disney's House of Mouse. It was at this time, 1999, that LaMarche began work on Futurama, and since Futurama LaMarche has continued to work steadily in television, including guest roles on The Simpsons (where he once again parodied Orson Welles). His most recent regular role came as Hovis the butler on the Nickelodeon series Catscratch. LaMarche voice of Victor in Playhouse Disney's Handy Manny Halloween episode. LaMarche has done various voice work for many Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment cartoons. He also delivered the protracted belches for the "Great Wakkorotti" shorts on Animaniacs, in which Wakko Warner performed various pieces of music. In 2011, LaMarche reprises his role as Yosemite Sam in Cartoon Network's new series, The Looney Tunes Show. ''Pinky and the Brain'' LaMarche plays the character of The Brain in Pinky and the Brain. In creating the voice for Brain, LaMarche says he looked at a picture of the character and immediately thought of Orson Welles,[12] although the character wasn't modeled after Welles.[13] Voicing Brain gave LaMarche the opportunity to make use of his signature impersonation of Welles.[14] Many Pinky and the Brain episodes are nods to Welles' career. LaMarche won an Annie Award for his role as the Brain, and was nominated for an Emmy.[15] LaMarche would later use this accent to voice Father in Codename: Kids Next Door. ''The Critic'' While working on The Critic, LaMarche once voiced 29 characters in one 30-minute episode.[16] His time on The Critic also afforded LaMarche the opportunity to once again parody Orson Welles, this time after a video reading of a will (the Sherman family was so wealthy, they had hired Welles to narrate it) dissolves into a commercial for Mrs. Pells Fishsticks, as well as another for Rosebud Frozen Peas ("full of count-ry goodness and green pea-ness"), and another for Blotto Bros. wine. ''Futurama'' Much of his best known voicework is from Futurama where he voiced Zapp Brannigan's beleaguered assistant Kif Kroker, melodramatic soap acting unit Calculon, the Caligula-esque Hedonismbot, and Lrrr, Supreme Ruler of Omicron Persei 8, among numerous others. He has also done his Orson Welles impression on the show, winning a 2011 Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Emmy for his portrayal of Lrrr and Orson Welles in episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences". He won another Emmy the following year for the Futurama episode "The Silence of the Clamps". ''Heroes'' LaMarche acted, voice only, in the second episode of the hit NBC show Heroes, "Don't Look Back", as the villain Sylar. His voice is heard in a chilling recorded phone conversation on Chandra Suresh's answering machine. The role of Sylar was later played by Zachary Quinto.[17] Film LaMarche appeared in many films, including dubbing the voice of Orson Welles over Vincent D'Onofrio's on-camera performance in Ed Wood; Pepé Le Pew in Space Jam; supplying the voice of the Alec Baldwin puppet in Team America: World Police, and reprising his roles from Queer Duck and Futurama in the direct-to-video films Queer Duck: The Movie and Futurama: Bender's Big Score, respectively. His one on-camera theatrical film performance was in the 1981 Canadian feature Funny Farm, not to be confused with a later Chevy Chase vehicle of the same name. The film follows the story of a young standup comedian's attempt to break into the big-time on the L.A. comedy scene. LaMarche played Dickie Lyons, an impressionist who befriends the main character, Mark Champlin. The film also starred Howie Mandel, Eileen Brennan, and Miles Chapin. In Mark Hamill's 2004 movie Comic Book: The Movie, LaMarche made a rare live appearance to be in the special features of the DVD alongside Pinky and the Brain co-star Rob Paulsen. Among other gags, he re-enacted his impression of Orson Welles' famous frozen peas commercial outtake. Roles *Morton - (US) *Jeffrey - (Series 8, onwards) Category:Voice Actors Category:Stop Motion Voice Actors Category:CGI Voice Actors